


"Those" Days Can Be Beautiful Too

by TooManyEggs



Series: Dysphoria (What It Means To Have Family) [2]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Gender Dysphoria, M/M, Period dysphoria, Trans Male Character, Upped Rating for Xanthes french
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-29
Updated: 2020-10-26
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:08:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,701
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26179249
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TooManyEggs/pseuds/TooManyEggs
Summary: Title is by Indian Period Poetry. It's a great thing, go read it! The one I chose is by Sreedevi."How's it?" He askedShe forgot the cramps andSmiled, enjoying the coffee."Those" days can be Beautiful too.
Relationships: Tell Longsworth/Lia Lugenwesch
Series: Dysphoria (What It Means To Have Family) [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1651429
Kudos: 3





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

> Title is by Indian Period Poetry. It's a great thing, go read it! The one I chose is by Sreedevi. 
> 
> "How's it?" He asked  
> She forgot the cramps and  
> Smiled, enjoying the coffee.  
> "Those" days can be Beautiful too.

"Tell?" Lia asks, and Tell clicks one more thing before turning and smiling at his lover. He's cute as hell in his pair of boxers and large shirt. It's slipping off of one shoulder, and Lia shudders. 

"Yeah?" Tell whispers back, because despite what Knova says he actually  _ can  _ read a room. Quite well, in fact. "What do you need?"

He watches Lia bite his lip and pull the arm of his shirt back up. He scratches his arm as he replies. "Can you go get some..uh.." Lia closes his eyes, and Tell is already getting up. He himself is only wearing boxers as well, although a sweater is on top of it. "Tell?"

Tell looks at him, feeling suspiciously like a child caught with his hand in a cookie jar. He blinks sheepishly, and pushes his one long sock down around his ankle. Lia just glances at him, and then looks straight into his eyes. 

"I need you to go get me some orange juice." He says, very seriously. Tell grins. 

"Of course. With pulp? Added sugar, right?" He presses a kiss to Lia's temple as he passes. Or..attempts to. He ends up hitting his shoulder instead. Lia flinches. "Whoa." He reaches up to rub at the spot, afraid he hurt him. Lia closes his eyes. "Baby. What's wrong?"

"Nothing, I'm just not feeling that great. I need orange juice." Tell doesn't stare for longer than three seconds. Lia looks straight at him again, although his eyes are distant. "I won't do anything, I promise. I just need space."

Tell immediately steps back, and Lia's eyes come back to startling clarity. Tell smiles, carefully, and slides into his shoes. He had found some sweatpants and slipped them on while waiting for Lia to reply. "Okay. I'll be back in about thirty, okay?" 

Lia nods and smiles. "Thank you."

"No problem."

  * \+ -



Tell waits until he pulls into the Save-A-Lot parking lot to put his head on the dash. 

He doesn't know what happened back there. He grunts, feels his eyes burn. 

_ What was wrong? _

Many, many things. Starting with the fact that Lia had basically dissociated right in from of him. During coversation. That hadn't happened since the first time he saw Xanthe yell in his presence. God. 

It had gotten better! Lia was asking for things without being prompted, and Tell was working towards getting him better!

Oh. Oh and then-

_ "I won't do anything, I promise." _

It was the rehearsed line of a student taught at school not to pull a girl's pigtails. A 'no I won't take another, I promise'.

He was so  _ worried.  _

_ Tell _ is so worried. He thinks for a moment. Closes his eyes, takes a deep breath and thinks. The grocery store hasn't opened yet, it still.being early, so he has time. 

Okay, think. There's one thing he can do. 

He pulls his phone out. 

"Knova?" He whispers, knowing damn well that she's a grumpy bear when she wakes up. 

"Hnn? What?" Knova grunts. 

Tell rolls his eyes. "I need you to do something for me."

There's the sound of fabric shuffling and he imagines Knova tiredly getting out of bed. There's a clack of her putting the phone down and a snip as she attaches her microphone and earbud. "What is it?" 

"I need you to check on Lia."

"He's fine, Elora went over there barely two minutes ago." Knova grunts. She sounds tired again, and there's another sound that Tell knows is her disconnecting the spywear. Then a thump and hard exhale as she falls back in bed. Her next words are muffled. "Why?" 

Tell shrugs before remembering that Knova can't see him. "I'm just worried is all." Knova makes a noise, the same one she makes when Ellerly says they can't get a phone call through.  _ Give me more information _ . "He asked me to come get something, but he seemed..skittish." 

There's a huff and then silence. Very telling silence. 

Tell breathes out. "He was getting better."

"Tell?" Knova suddenly says, voice hard. Tell hums. "You're stupid." 

Tell grins his teeth. "Well sorry, my fucking bad for being worried about my boyfriend." He was about to add more information but since he's  _ not  _ stupid he shuts up. 

"Your boyfriend is-" Knova huffs. "I can't tell you why, but I can hint at it." Tell raises his brows. Knova is rarely this kind, Lia probably softened her up for him. Tell grins and listens. "What happens to women?"

"Terrible things."

"You fucking idiot. Yes, of course, but what happens twelve times a year? To a woman?" 

Tell's eyebrows come together. "Twelve times a year?" An affirmative grunt from Knova. "Periods. I know that, I'm not an idiot."

"Mmmhmm, you're sure acting like one." 

"Lia's on his period?"

"Finally!" Knova slow claps. "Yes, Tell."

"I thought he-"

"He lied to you. Do you even know James? James never has the heart to hurt somebody, even for their own wellbeing."

"But-"

"Have you seen him at a pharmacy lately?" 

"Ugh!" Tell screams. He smiles sheepishly at a woman who passes by. She takes her children and walks faster. Smart. "So what? He was anxious about asking me to get pads or something? I don't care!"

"He doesn't know that!" Knova barrels into the phone, and Tell growls at her. She just sneers back, "He's had bad experiences, you dumb fuck! Now get in that goddamn store get him a Mega-size pack of fucking Always™pads and fucking vamanoose!"

"Fucking  _ fine!  _ What is Elora at the house for?!" He barrels out of the car, calms himself down at the door, and enters. 

"Same reason you are! Except she knows better, so she's just comforting him right now!" 

Tell grabs a cart and speedwalks into the Self-Care aisle.  _ Always.  _ "What the fu- Jesus?" He stops himself. "Does he only have  _ one left? _ "

"Jesus Christ, Tell-" 

"Oh my God, I've lived with  _ three  _ women, I think I know how they work." He takes a second to think about what he just said and groans. He rubs his forehead. "God, that sounded so douchey. I apologise. Okay, Jesus. Just get the shit and go-" 

Tell speeds over to the  _ Always.  _ "Okay, um. What color? Does it matter? One says flow chart, what the he-" Tell sighs, closing his eyes. The ones he saw in Lia's hands a few flippant times were purple. "They were purple! There's an -uh- I'm gonna get heavy flow, cuz' that covers everything, basically, I think?

"God, why am I talking to myself? I am  _ totally  _ asking for a period lesson when I get home."

He hears Knova cackle on the other side, a sharp wheeze coming out. He begins to smile too. This won't be that bad. He opens his mouth to speak, but Knova interrupts him. "Get chocolate." 

"He doesn't like chocolate." Tell murmurs. "He likes strawberry. And orange."

"Get all three then."

"Good idea. Uhm. They don't sell strawberry cupcakes here, I'm gonna get stuff to make them. God, I suck at baking-"

"We're on it." 

"What-no! I wanna bake him stuff-"

"Tell, that's on order." Knova's voice is soft, now. "Stop freaking out, okay? We're gonna make this the  _ best  _ fucking period he's had in his  _ life. _ "

Tell pauses. "Alright, fine. Lia likes dark chocolate." 

  * \+ -



After stopping by the Crewhouse and getting two dozen strawberry and orange cupcakes, Tell drives home. 

He's happy to see that Lia is asleep on the couch, a rerun of Supernatural on the screen. He watches for a moment as Cas and Sam have their moment, and then walks back out of the door. 

Settling all the cupcakes on the table, a strawberry stack and an orange stack, he places the bars and bags of chocolate he got on top. In front of it, he places the Mega-Size Always, and beside it, a few packs of Midol. 

Looking over his bounty he smiles, and looks over to Lia. He walks over, presses the smallest little kiss to his ear, and then gets back on his computer. 

He let's Supernatural run in the background as he works, typing in code and eventually taking a break to play Crossy Road and Flappy Bird. 

  * \+ -



Lia wakes up to screaming and sound of a spacebar being tapped. 

"No, you bastard! That's  _ Cas. You son of a bi _ tch!" Tells voice breaks as his chair falls backwards. It's there, on the floor, that he catches Lia's eyes. "Sorry." He whispers. 

Lia smiles. "It's fine. That's Lucifer, not Ca-" Lia freezes at the sight of the things on the table. 

"No! It's Cas. It's  _ Castiel's  _ body. Now sometimes I can admit that Lucifer can be a  _ mood _ -" Tell rolls over and stands up, sitting his chair up and pointing at the screen. "Look-its  _ CAS."  _

"Tell-"

"It's Cas-" Tell whispers, and Lia remembers that he's never seen this show. But he knows the characters cause Lia's ranted about it. 

Lia sniffs in.  _ God.  _

There's so much stuff on the table. A big pack of pads. They're a size bigger than preferable, but. But they're  _ pads.  _ And Tell hasn't said anything. 

"Sorry, I forgot about the orange juice."

"Tell." Lia turns quickly, and hugs him. "Thank you."

"Hey, hey." Tell reaches up, runs a hand over Lia's hair. The other one strokes up and down Lia's back. "It's no problem. Darlin'- look, okay you don't actually have to look at me," Tell whispers when Lia snuggles into his shoulder. He starts to shake as well. Tell smiles, and presses a kiss to his shoulder. "Look. It's  _ no problem _ okay? Not a problem at all."

Lia let's out a sob. "Sorry, sorry. Hormones-"

"'ey." Tell presses his face against Lia's neck, letting him feel his smile. "Doesn't make it any less real." 

There's silence as Lia shakes in his grip and then his stomach growls. He whines and shuffles closer to Tell. Tell murmurs underneath his breath. "What do you want to eat?" 

Lia grunts, shrugs. Tell laughs. Lia smiles, hidden in Tell's shirt. "Spaghetti."

"That's gonna take a while. What's gonna tide you over until then?" Tell looks over to an open cabinet. "We got Mac and cheese, that only takes a few min-" 

Lia kisses him. Tell squeaks, smiles, then kisses back. 

The night goes swimmingly. Tell doesn't say a single thing about snuggling over a towel on the bed, or about when Lia wears short-shorts underneath his pajama pants. 

Lia falls asleep full of spaghetti and happiness. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> God this is so fluffy

The next morning Tell wakes up first. 

It's always a bad sign. Lia tends to get out of bed bright and early, but this time Tell blinks his eyes open to see his boyfriend smiling in his sleep. He snorts laughter at something in his dream and Tell smiles. He presses a kiss to his jawline, just a press of lips. 

Lia hums and leans towards it, settling again to go back to sleep. 

It's peaceful. Tell slides down beside him and goes back to sleep.

  * +



The second time Tell wakes up it's to Lia struggling with the covers. 

"There's-" Lia coughs. 

Tell sits up and untangles him from the covers, looking away when he rushes to the bathroom. There's an aggressive ripping sound of a pad coming open that Tell ignores. 

He hears Lia pad into the kitchen, and smiles like a goof when he hears a chocolate bar being opened. He pushes his face into the pillow, and waits until Lia comes back to bed. 

He does, eventually. With a half-eaten chocolate bar and work. He's carrying a plank, his work gloves and a gun. Tell blinks at the gun but when Lia pulls his trigger he nods. 

It's broken. He's trying to fix it. 

The clicking and Lia's quizzical hums lure him back to sleep.

  * +



Tell wakes up a third time. His phone is furiously clanging against the nightstand, vibrating so hard it's about to fall off. 

He groans and reaches over, tiredly feeling for it. Lia reaches over him, damn his superior height, and slides it into his palm. 

"Tha-" Tell murmurs, and Lia pets his head. He swipes the call open and rests it on his chest. "Wh-"

"Tell, you  _ fucking idiot!"  _ Xanthe screams through the phone and Tell shoots up. His phone flies off of the bed and Tell. Tell falls off trying to catch it. "You fucking-" She starts cursing in all the languages she knows and really? It's sort of dramatic. 

"What did I do?!" Tell screams over her, and when she just replies with curses he hangs up. He's gonna get shit for it later but he hangs up. Calls Knova. 

"You shouldn't have done that." Knova says as a greeting. Tell huffs. 

"Hello to you too." He murmurs. "What did I do?"

"Look on the local news." 

"Oh god." Tell grunts. "Is there another mission?" He reaches under the dresser, pulls out his tablet. It takes two seconds to boot up and then his screen pops up. 

"The next mission seems to be Xanthe killing you for hanging up on her-"

" _ He what?" _

"Read the news, bye!" He hears Elora's voice say, and then there's a furious beeping noise as the call ends. 

Tell grunts. 

"What's wrong?" Lia says, and Tell grunts again. "C'mon. Get up here, we'll look together."

Tell tosses the tablet up on the bed and rolls over, standing. He slides onto the bed next to Lia and reloads the news page. 

Lia's long fingers click on the first link before Tell can get his glasses on. He's just rubbing the fog off of them when Lia makes a noise. 

"What?" Tell asks. "What's wrong?"

Lia shows him the tablet. 

_ Local Boyfriend Does Good Deed:  _

_ "I am totally asking for a period lesson when I get home." _

Underneath is a picture of Tell himself, phone to his ear and cart beside him full of period products. 

Tell blushes up to his ears when he sees it, but he reads on regardless. 

_ Right after opening, a young man came into the local Save-A-Lot with a mission: period products.  _

_ The young man was seen on the phone during the entire trip, balancing it between his shoulder and here his ear even while going over the Self-Care aisle. A witness, an elderly woman by the name of Shannon, watched him pick out the right product.  _

_ "He had his phone to his ear the whole time, but I never heard the other person say what he needed to get." Shannon said to the cashier, who reported the delicious story. "He seemed to remember by himself. He closed his eyes and all of the sudden said "They were purple!" It was so sweet." _

_ The cashier in question thought another fact was much more interesting.  _

It shows a cashier, a young female with ear piercings. She looks bored, but happy. 

_ She spoke of what the man said when he _ first  _ entered the Self-Care aisle.  _

_ "He said - "I've lived with three women, I think I know how they work-" and I was about to say something, cause that's not how it works y'know? Lots of sexist people have women friends. But then he puts his head in his hands and get this- _

_ "He said, "God that sounded so douchey." _

_ "We need more men like that in the world." _

Then the article goes on about how men should learn about periods and do what he did to support their lady friends. Also about how there is  _ camera footage _ . 

He sees why Xanthe is angry now. 

He drops the tablet and groans. He falls back into the bed and covers his face with his hands. After a few moments he hears tapping and glances over to see Lia's nails tap-tap-tapping against the bottom of the tablet as he reads the article again. 

And again. 

And  _ again. _

Tell opens his mouth to tell him to stop, it's embarrassing, Xanthe won't let him go out for a  _ month _ -

But Lia kisses him instead. A wet, teary kiss, but a kiss. 

Tell squeaks, reaching his hands up to rub up and down his back. Lia smiles against his lips and pushes him down. 

They fall asleep on top of each other. 

  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Comments, kudos. 
> 
> Thanks for reading.


End file.
